Singer, songwriter, and mainstay of the Bay Area music scene Jeff Larson and longtime collaborator Gerry Beckley—known mostly as half of the Grammy Award-winning multi-platinum-selling rock group America with co-founder Dewey Bunnell—have joined forces to create the album JEFF LARSON WITH GERRY BECKLEY. Due October 24 on the Nashville-based Melody Place label, it’s a fresh modern-sounding recording with roots in the golden California sound and highlighted by two voices which often soar in tight harmony.
This is especially illustrated by release of the first single “C’mon Home,” out today (September 12) and coinciding with Beckley’s birthday. The Beckley-Larson composition possesses distinctive twin lead vocals, glistening harmonies, ringing guitars, and lyrics that movingly offer a guiding hand to someone who’s lost their way: “Where you gonna run to now boy/When you’re all alone?/Riding like a lonesome cowboy/You were born to roam/…Why don’t you come on home.” Listen to the song HERE and pre-order/pre-save it HERE.
“‘C’mon Home’ was the last song to be added to this project,” says Larson. “I think we knew we had a strong set of songs but maybe lacked one more to fill it out. Gerry sent me a track he was working on that I could tell already had a vibe and a hook with the slide part he did. He had the initial verse lines and chorus idea, so he asked if I would fill the lyric in and sing it. To me this is classic Gerry Beckley production with hooks all over. It seems to have almost written and sung itself.”
The eleven compositions on JEFF LARSON WITH GERRY BECKLEY extend the longtime collaboration that began in 1998 when Larson recorded a song by America co-founder Beckley. Not long after, Gerry returned the favor and sang on one of Jeff’s songs. A friendship was born. 2008 saw the release of Heart of the Valley. Inspired by 1970’s Nilsson Sings Newman, on which Harry Nilsson paid tribute to his contemporary Randy Newman with Randy on piano, Heart of the Valley found Larson movingly interpreting the Beckley songbook with Gerry contributing voice and accompaniment. The gorgeously atmospheric title song of Heart of the Valley might have referred to the California freeway known as the 405 (which indeed runs through the heart of the San Fernando Valley) but its appeal and universality extended far beyond the Golden State.
JEFF LARSON WITH GERRY BECKLEY continues their collective story in song. Produced and engineered by Beckley and Larson, it’s a melodic and eclectic set of songs by two friends, singers, and songwriters. Their vocal blend is a sweet and near-familial one as the singer-songwriters reflect on love, loss, and connection—and the poignant connection they’ve made here is one that’s both deeply rooted and vividly in flight. For these two artists, the song’s the thing.
“This project started by going through some of the songs Gerry and I had tracked between 2024–2025,” offers Larson. “We have been writing and recording at a steady pace since 2020–on average a song a week. Over time, some songs had their own personality where they didn’t fit either of our solo endeavors. These were also the songs that were more 50/50 collaborations. I was simply gathering a playlist of those songs, along with a handful of others that fit the idea of a more collaborative project. I sent the playlist to Gerry, and he came back immediately with, ‘There’s an album here.’”
From the opening strains of “Baby Goodbye,” Jeff Larson with Gerry Beckley proves transporting. The song’s farewell may be an emphatic one, but the importance of connection, and lightening one’s load, courses through the album. “One Last Time” conjures the image of standing on a precipice in life, while the pulsating “Looking at the Rain” poses the question, “Where do we go from here?” The lyric “only love survives” might offer a hint as to the answer. The ravishing “Sleight of Hand” finds its narrator at the crossroads, for sure, but with an undercurrent of hope.
If “Sleight of Hand” lopes at a wistful gait recalling Burt Bacharach’s best, the ruminative “Oh Diane”—a Beckley solo tune—basks in a beautiful melancholy redolent of both Bacharach and one of Beckley’s musical heroes and close friends, Brian Wilson. (It’s no surprise that Bacharach and Wilson were mutual admirers and onetime collaborators.) “C’mon Home” glides along on a California breeze with a tinge of “Sister Golden Hair” as Beckley’s still-reassuring slide guitar lines provide cool comfort.
At a time when joy is in short supply, Jeff Larson with Gerry Beckley offers it in abundance, as on the Larson original “Oh Wow!” Lyrically inspired by the innocence and wonder of a child, it doubles as an expression of the sheer adrenaline rush of love in full bloom. A loose, NRBQ-flavored rock-and-roll vibe infuses the track. An unexpected cover of David “Shel” Shapiro, Mogol, and Michael Julien’s “Live for Today” underscores the timelessness and relevance of a great song. “Live for Today” was first recorded in Italian in 1966 by British singer-guitarist Shapiro’s expatriate band, The Rokes, and popularized in the U.S. the next year by L.A.’s Grass Roots. It found particular resonance with young American soldiers fighting overseas in the Vietnam War who identified with its sentiments to “take the most from living, have pleasure while we can.” As reimagined by Larson and Beckley, the urgent admonition to “Live for Today” could have been written yesterday.
Gerry Beckley knows the life of a touring musician well. In 2024, he stepped away from the road after over 50 years on stages around the world with America. The jagged rhythms of “Waiting Game (Jet-Lagged Zombie)” complement its evocative and memorable imagery. “Again” is an arresting and introspective portrait of a traveling man: “It takes a sky to wonder why/If not now, then when?” The album culminates with the Beckley-penned “Amnesia.” With mournful piano and stately strings, it’s raw and devastating (“Why is it that all of the things we recall are the ones we truly regret?”) yet filled with hard-won wisdom and, above all, humanity. With an emphasis on matters of the heart, JEFF LARSON WITH GERRY BECKLEY revisits the era in which songcraft was paramount.
Track Listing — JEFF LARSON WITH GERRY BECKLEY
- Baby Goodbye (Gerry Beckley, Jeff Larson)
- One Last Time (Gerry Beckley, Jeff Larson)
- Looking at the Rain (Gerry Beckley, Jeff Larson)
- Oh Diane (Gerry Beckley)
- C’mon Home (Gerry Beckley, Jeff Larson)
- Let’s Live for Today (David Shapiro, Ivan Mogul, Michael Julien)
- Sleight of Hand (Gerry Beckley, Jeff Larson)
- Waiting Game (Jet-Lagged Zombie) (Gerry Beckley, Jeff Larson)
- Oh Wow! (Jeff Larson)
- Again (Gerry Beckley, Jeff Larson)
